A (teen) wrestling superstar

When Rupinder Johal first started wrestling roughly eight years ago few would have projected worldwide success.

“Every tournament I would go to I would lose,” she recalled about her early days in the sport.

She was also often met with a discouraging message: “girls don’t really wrestle.”

Rupi (her nickname) disagreed.

“The more people told me I couldn't do it, the more I wanted to.”

It took years of hard work, but Rupi began to find success and by the age of 14, she reached the finals in a provincial tournament.

Since then, Rupi has dominated her opponents across Canada and the globe. Last year, the five-foot-eleven powerhouse went undefeated in BC high school competition, carried the flag for Team BC at the Canada Summer Games, and was named top female athlete at the Pan American Championships.

Wrestling has always been a part of Rupi’s family. Her dad and other family members wrestled in India. Later, in Canada, the sport was introduced to Rupi’s brother.

“[Dad] got my brother into wrestling while I was doing other sports,” Rupi said.

But she didn’t remain on the side of the mat for very long.

Rupi wasn’t necessarily trying to challenge any cultural barriers; she was drawn to wrestling after trying out team sports like basketball and soccer.

“I liked that it was an individual sport and I could control what was going on,” she said.

She preferred the pressure. “If I performed badly, I couldn't be putting the blame on someone else.”

Around the age of 10 Rupi started tagging along during her brother’s training sessions and asked if she could practice too. She often heard that wrestling wasn’t a sport for girls, but that didn’t stop her.

Even so, it would be another two years before Rupi committed to the sport. And another couple of years before she would experience success, earning silver at a provincial tournament.

But the high of winning was short-lived. The teen’s opportunity to build on her success was quashed by the pandemic. Competition was suspended. But Rupi was determined to keep active.

“I was still training, my club was still training and would go to the track, do anything to keep our body moving and staying fit.”

Rupi, like many other athletes, didn’t compete for two years. Then in Grade 11 she entered her first university tournament. Many would consider that an accomplishment but it didn’t matter to Rupi that she was much younger than some of her opponents, she was hardest on herself about the outcome: a loss.

“It was really hard on me. I [thought], ‘Oh my god, I’m not good anymore,’” she recalled. “I think it really messed with my mental game and it was always really hard for me to even come near a mat.”

Rupi channeled that frustration into her training. Eventually success followed.

Rupi would go on to earn a spot on Team BC and later the cadet national team which qualified her to represent Canada at the 2022 Pan American Championships, where she won gold and was named the meet’s most outstanding female wrestler. She later won at both the BC provincials and won gold at the Canada Summer Games, where she carried the BC flag for the 387-member contingent at the opening ceremonies.

“It felt really good because I was representing my community because I’m Punjabi, my sport and my province,” she said about leading Team BC at the Summer Games.

In January, she was named one of three finalists for Sport BC’s High School Female Athlete of the Year award. (The title was awarded in March to a student athlete in Richmond.)

It’s been nearly a decade since Rupi got her start in wrestling and she believes the sport has become more inclusive.

In the past, it would be stereotypical of the Punjabi community to assume wrestling was a man’s sport, she said.

“But my parents and my family, they supported me, and obviously my coaches supported me also.”

Looking ahead, the 17-year-old honour roll student has her eyes on Simon Fraser University’s wrestling program where she hopes to study kinesiology in the fall. She is determined to one day represent Canada at the Olympics.

“The amount of support I get from my own people—and they’re just so proud that a girl, that's Punjabi, is doing so well in this sport. It just makes me so happy.

“I wasn't really good in the beginning and I think just working and building myself, just makes me feel so much more proud of how far I’ve come, and how far I can go because this is just the beginning.”